October 21, 2012

Beth and Bike Smuts Excellent Adventure: Mo smut in Mo Town

After Chicago we drove to Detroit, making one stop along the way for a picnic. The drive wasn't at all that long, but by the time we got to the city we were exhausted. I don't know if any one has ever told you, but Detroit has insanely bumpy roads. That plus the fact that I had a rusty quick release culminated on my front wheel popping of as we were trying to find the apartment it was a cute, small apartment with two bedrooms. Luckily we had the place to ourselves as a friend of a friend was out of state. It was nice sleeping in a bad by myself for the first time in weeks.

The Hub Bicycle Co-op

The next morning we went to The Hub bike community bicycle repair shop to replace my front wheel. After some general bike maintenance and wheel replacing we rode over to a local pub for a lunch of sandwiches. Later in the evening we met up with Amy Snell a previous bike pornographer who had made one of my favorite films last year. It was like meeting bike porn royalty, and we all went for drinks at a bar called The Bronx. There was an amazing, eccentric old lady working there who said fuck or shit after almost every other word, I so badly wanted her to join us for drinks, but alas, she had to work. After the bar, Poppy decided to make us some dinner, so we stopped by a grocery store to pick up supplies. The meal was delicious, and I happily started on the dishes. Unfortunately, thats when the night took a turn for the worse... or the more hilarious depending on how you look at it. I accidentally pepper sprayed the kitchen wall. I know what you are thinking and no I was not drunk or stoned. It was a total freak accident that ended up as being completely okay since the girl who's apartment we were staying in had previously pepper sprayed Amy Snell's kitchen ceiling. So in the end we just ended up laughing about it a lot.

My favorite bar tender.

Revs tall bike is a rolling advertisement

The next day we went over to Amy's house and hung out there for a bit. After spending some time at Amy's drinking coffee and baileys, smoking cigarettes out the window and using her Internet (huzzah) we took of to the Cass city cinema where we were to have our show that night. We dropped of our stuff and left the van there as we took of for a bike ride. The night of our show also happened to be the same night as Dlectriciy, Detroits new nighttime, contemporary light and art festival. There was a bike ride where everyone light up the night with their many bikes lights and we rode around. Such a blast! We handed out flyers then headed of to the show to start setting up. The show went well and we gave away a couple of free sexy movies and vibrators to audience members who answered questions about the movies correctly. After the show a small group of us, including an old friend of mine who drove up all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, went to a party in a retro hip recycling plant. There were five bands playing, a smog machine, fun lights and some cute hipsters. Since it was cold I spent the majority of the night standing around the burn barrel but danced away the cold when this awesome punk band went on.

SHARE DETROIT bike lights at Dlectricity.

Abandoned blue house

The next day was one of my favorites of the tour so far. We had a late morning with a home cooked breakfast and brass monkeys. Around two in the afternoon Amy, Rev, Poppy, Mark Fancy Pants and I rode of into Detroit on our bicycles. We took a lovely route through the city past some incredible street art and abandoned buildings. Our first stop of the day was to heidelberg street. Twenty six years ago a gentleman named Tyree Guyton founded the project by taking to the houses with a paint brush and a ton of cuddly toys. He transformed the street into a breathtaking art project by painting the houses and creating sculptures from ordinary every day house essentials. He also used cuddly toys, shopping carts, shoes (lots of shoes!) and a boat! The whole thing was quite breathtaking.Here are some shots taken at Heidelberg street.

After Heidelberg street we took of on our bikes once again to explore more of the city. This time it was to an old abandoned Packard car plant. Gigantic dark stone buildings towered over us and broken glass and other debris littered the ground around our feet. We found a deserted hallway in one of the buildings to lock up our bikes in and proceeded to adventure throughout the multiple buildings. Fancy Pants still had a 40 of beer left over so we drank it as we climbed up to the top of the tallest building. Our goal was to eventually throw the empty bottle of the roof. It took some searching, but we finally found the stairs that led us to the roof. After exploring for a bit the sun started to set so we descended from what felt like the top of the world. We took five minuets to gander around an underground tunnel that was blacker the black when we turned of our flashlights, then we got back on our bikes and rode back in the direction of home.

Pictures taken at the abandoned Packard plant.

Steve Fancy Pants drinking a 40.

This was at the end of a dark tunnel, almost pissed my pants when I saw it.

On the way back, Amy remembered that some of her friends were having a BBQ at their work so we stopped by to meet some more people and hopefully eat some delicious food. And we did that exactly! There was music, beer and AMAZING BBQ pulled pork. We met a few new friends, had some of them ride the tall bike. After a few hours we decided to head out to the karaoke bar down the street, which we did. We sang along, drank a few more drinks and finally headed back home for some well needed rest. The next night we went to another bar where we met up with the end of a group ride. It was another fun and lovely night spent in Detroit. After spending almost a week hanging out it was time to hit the road again. This time it was to Canada! So we left in the early afternoon to begin our journey in the land of poutine, hockey and maple syrup!

Here are some more photos that I thought deserved to be in this post, Detroit was so beautiful I couldn't resist to post almost all the pictures I took!

Bike Smut is...

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